Title: The Skinny Rules: The Simple, Nonnegotiable Principles for Getting to Thin

Author: Bob Harper with Greg Critser

Devour it

→ Nibble till it’s gone

Spit it out

Bob Harper has a new book out. After seeing some of the reviews, I wanted to take a look for myself. I’m a sucker for simple rules, after all. Just tell me what to do to keep the weight off and I’ll do it. Maybe.

“Today, like never before, we are bombarded from every direction with health advice — about diet, nutrition, weight loss, exercise, organic or nonorganic, free-range or corn-fed. Now add in the daily science and medical news, a lot of which sounds either stunningly obvious (not being obese = good) or ridiculously counter to what we thought was correct (fruit juice = not so good), and you’ve got a jumbo case of Clutter Brain.”

Sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so.

So Bob, like many of us, tried to distill it down to some simple rules, in his case 20 of them. Most are obvious and you probably already do them … don’t drink your calories, read food lables, don’t eat so many refined flours and grains, eat more fiber, blah, blah, blah.

But two of them piqued my interest a bit more. The first was “eat apples and berries every day.” Wow. So simple! So doable! So cheap! They’re rich in phytochemicals and fiber, and low in calories. They also help keep the balance of friendly bacteria in our gut and stabilize energy storage vs energy expenditure, which is how you prevent packing on the pounds. I can definitely eat apples and berries every day. I already eat berries every morning. To make sure I remember to eat an apple too, I set my alarm to take a break mid-afternoon. I watch Ellen’s monologue and eat my apple. It gives me a laugh, forces me away from my desk for 15 minutes, and now, Ellen Degeneres is that friendly face that reminds me to eat my apple.

Rule #7, however, has proven to be a bit more difficult for me. “No carbs after lunch.”

“Carbs are forms of sugar, and sugar cues the pancreas to make more insulin, which in turn triggers appetite …. the number of times during the day that you signal your pancreas to make insulin is just as important as how much sugar you eat. Each ‘excursion’ is like a hammer delivering blow after blow to your cells.”

I’m not a carb addict by any means, but I’m finding this rule quite challenging. Bob tells me to “eat lean and green at night.” Until I started thinking about this rule, I didn’t realize how often I ate lasagne for dinner, or a sandwich, or crackers with my soup. Plus, I’m completely unclear as to whether my afternoon apple counts as a carb. (I’m going to say it doesn’t. If Bob didn’t want me to eat my apple with Ellen he would have said “eat berries and apples every morning,” right? Right?!)

I’m going to keep trying the no-carbs-after-lunch thing partly because it is so difficult for me, but also because I want to believe Bob. He’s so adorable … he wouldn’t mislead me, right? Take a look at Bob’s rules and see if there’s some tweak(s) you can make to your lifestyle.

Maybe it’ll be the very one you’re missing.

What do you think … does Bob want me to eat my apple every day regardless of the time?